1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a battery terminal connector for connecting a terminal of a battery cable to a battery terminal post.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Conventionally, the battery terminal connector, such as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 has been known. The conventional battery terminal connector has, as shown in FIG. 5, a post fixing portion 2 formed at one end of a metal body 1 so as to be applied onto and to be fixed on a battery terminal post A which has a circular truncated conical shape, and a stud bolt 3 provided at another end of the metal body 1, on which a connecting terminal of a cable B is fixed. Such a conventional battery terminal connector is produced by punching a metal plate and pressing the punched plate so as to form the terminal connector of finished shape. The post fixing portion 2 has an open or cut portion 2a at a part of a ring-like peripheral portion thereof and the open portion 2a has a pair of projecting parts 2b, 2b respectively projected from the ring-like peripheral portion. A pair of bolt holes 2c, 2c are formed in the projecting parts 2b, 2b respectively, through which holes 2c, 2c a bolt 4 is inserted and a nut 5 is applied and engaged onto an end of the bolt 4. Firmly engaging the bolt 4 and nut 5 causes the post fixing portion 2 to be fixed to the battery terminal post A.
However, in the conventional battery terminal connector having the post fixing portion such as described above, it is necessary to give strong rigidity to the projecting parts 2b, 2b and consequently they are likely to be made large in size. As a result, there is a drawback that it is difficult to mount the post fixing portion 2 to the battery terminal post A if an obstruction such as a member C in FIG. 6 is provided near the terminal post A.
In order to obviate the drawback, the present inventor of this invention invented a battery terminal connector for a battery cable terminal of small, yet adequate strength, which was filed with the Japanese Patent Office under Utility Model Application No. 115071/1985, published Feb. 16, 1987. The terminal connector according to the previous application is manufactured by punching a shape of the sheet material 10 out of a metal plate and folding the shaped sheet material 10 to form a metal body 11 which forms a main portion of the battery terminal connector as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. The metal body 11 has at one end thereof a battery terminal post fixing portion 11a which has a fixing hole 12 therein, and at another end thereof a stud bolt fixing portion 11b. It is apparent that a stud bolt 13 is fixed to the stud bolt fixing portion 11b by means of a hole 10f provided at the central portion of the stud bolt fixing portion 11b and that the battery cable terminal B is electrically connected to the stud bolt 13.
A cylindrical bolt fastening portion 14 is formed at a side of the battery terminal post fixing portion 11a of the metal body 11 for fixing the fixing hole 12 to the battery terminal post A, with a securing bolt 15 being inserted into a cylindrical inner space of the cylindrical bolt fastening portion 14.
As apparent from the drawing, a slit 17 passing transversely through the bolt fastening portion 14 extends to the peripheral edges of the battery terminal post fixing hole 12 and cuts the edges of the battery terminal post fixing hole.
When a bolt 15 passing through said cylindrical inner space and a nut 16a are engaged to one end of the bolt 5 through washer 16b and the bolt 15 and nut 16a are screwed together, the gap of the slit 17 is made narrow to secure or hold the battery terminal post A by a compression of the diameter of the fixing hole 12.
On assembling and producing the battery cable terminal connector of Japanese Utility Model No. 115071/1985, the sheet material 10 of the metal body 11 is folded to obtain the shape of the metal body 11 as shown in FIG. 7, overlapping an upper plate portion 10a on a lower plate portion 10b or placing the latter under the former. Then, left and right wing portions 10e, 10e formed at both the sides of a bolt hole 10f formed in the upper plate portion 10a are respectively bent downwardly as seen in FIG. 10, and thereafter left and right wing portions 10g, 10g in the lower plate portion 10b are twisted at respective neck portions 10h, 10h to change the wing portions 10g, 10g from horizontal to vertical direction, respectively. Consequently, a left set of the wing portions 10e and 10g are situated side by side and a right set of the wing portions 10e and 10g are also positioned side by side as shown in FIG. 10. A square head stud bolt 13 is inserted through the hole 10f from down side of the metal body 11 and both the piled or laminated wing portions 10e, 10g and 10e, 10g are bent at their lower end portions at the horizontal directions so as to embrace or hold the square head of the stud bolt 13 (see FIG. 9A, B and C) firmly.
However, there are also drawbacks present in the conventional battery terminal connector which is produced in the manner mentioned above. Each set of the wing portions 10e, 10g and 10e, 10g must be bent together or simultaneously after they are piled, so that both the sets are difficult to precisely bend at a right angle since each of the wing portions 10e, 10g and 10e, 10g are only piled on each other.
Because each of wing portions 10g, 10g is twisted at the neck portion 10h, 10h, much stress and strain are concentrated at the neck portions 10h, 10h after twisting. In operation, when the battery cable terminal B is, for example, pulled violently and consequently a large load is applied to the stud bolt 13, or repeating load or vibration is applied to the battery cable terminal B and the stud bolt 13, stress and strain are concentrated at the neck portions 10h, 10h, resulting in breakage or cut of the portions 10h, 10h disadvantageously.